Clinical allergenic responses in humans are typically caused by inappropriate allergic reactivity in susceptible individuals to allergens commonly present in the environment. One class of allergens originates from the detritus of living organisms with which human beings share their environment. One source of such organic allergenic material is arthropods which comprise, of course, most of the animal species existent on the planet. Small arthropods such as insects, arachnids, and crustaceans, are the most important worldwide source of inhalant allergenic organic materials which are capable of causing clinical allergic disorders in susceptible humans. The detritus from these animals is ubiquitous, due to the wide dispersion and high populations of these organisms throughout the human environment. Susceptible humans suffer from allergic conjunctivitis as a result of sensitization and allergic antibody reactivity to these arthropod proteins prevalent in the environment.
The diagnosis and treatment of allergic disease caused by environmental exposure requires both a diagnosis method to determine the source of origin of the allergen, and then treatment to the patient specifically targeted toward the allergen which the patient has heightened sensitivity. Typically diagnosis is done by exposing symptomatic patients to minute quantities of specific allergens and determining which of the allergens elicits allergenic response, such tests often being done by means of "skin prick" tests, or other tests involving small amounts of relatively pure allergen. Once the source of the allergen is identified which causes allergic symptoms in a particular individual, then a therapeutic injection regimen is often indicated which is intended to desensitize the individual to the specific allergen. This may involve injections into the patient of increasing quantities of relatively pure allergen so that circulating levels of antibodies are created to the specific antigen, which has the effect of desensitizing the allergenic reaction in mucosal tissues to the specific allergen. Thus, both for purposes of diagnosis and for therapeutic treatment of allergic disease, the ability to produce quantities of relatively pure allergenic material is highly useful.
Before quantities of allergenic material can be developed for diagnosis or therapeutic uses, the source of the allergenic disease must be defined, both at the organic level and at the molecular level. One class of allergic disease is experienced by farm workers who are known to experience allergic inflammatory airway disease symptoms when exposed to barn dusts. In addition to inflammatory airways disease, other susceptible patients have experienced asthma and dermatitis exposed to such dusts. As early as 1924, Storm van Leeuwen published a report indicating that the storage mites Acarus siro and Lepidoglyphus destructor were responsible for allergenic asthmatic responses in such patients. Z. Immunf. Exp. Ther., 40:552-569 (1924). Storage mites refer to several species of insects which are often prevalent in stored food materials. Several other mites have been previously proven to be the sources of clinically significant allergenic proteins. Kagen (Ed) "Inhalant Allergy to Arthropods" in Clinical Review of Allergy, 8:1-125 (1990). However, the treatment and alleviation of symptoms caused by such storage mites is dependent upon first identifying the allergenic molecules from such organisms, and then either isolating significant quantities of the proteins from such organisms or making available techniques for production of allergenic proteins in heterologous hosts.